Is anyone else as excited for them as I am? Not that I can show my human emotions on here but I am super excited for the people of Egypt as they had the guts and determination to go through and change their government. If only the american populace could do something similar.....just gotta turn off the honey boo boo, jersey shore and put down the twinkies and what not.

edit: just saw helicopters fly over and drop something that looks like pamplets? shirts? something...anyone have an idea?

Biggest protests in history against Morsi, bigger than Mubarak, bigger than anything ever seen before. People angry that Morsi hasn't improved anything. Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Cairo attacked by protesters, broken into, burned out, completely ransacked. Same with Freedom and Justice Party HQ in Alexandria (F&J Party is the party that Morsi leads, a puppet of the MB). Military says Morsi and protesters have 48 hours to reconcile and end the protests or they'll end them themselves. That deadline was passed earlier today. Seems like they're doing it.

I'm confused here because the news stations make it seem like the military wants to take power and return to the old regime. Is that really what they want? Or are they planning on keeping democratic institutions in Egypt?

The army in Egypt is generally thought of as a force for good. Most people have to serve in it, and during the last run of protests they didn't take the side of their general and begin gunning down civilians, they took the side of the people. And again this seems like what they're doing. The police on the other hand are hated and despised

From what I have read, the general consensus is that the military wants to have control, but not be the guy actually running things.

I think they would be happy with any stable government that didn't try to reduce their power. Their current plan seems to be to somehow remove Morsi, put a temporary mixed military/civ government in power, and start all over again (new constitution, parliament, etc.)

That seems to be the case, yes. They're not happy with the fact that the parliament was dissolved and Morsi basically had total rule. They probably see the instability of the government without checks and balances as dangerous to both themselves in the army and their loved ones.

It's more that Morsi has become anti-democratic. Read the fourth paragraph of his wikipedia page.

It's the same problem the Turkish people have with Erdogan; Democracy does not begin and end at election, it's a continued process of legitimacy that extends long past the election has happened. Morsi has not respected this, and his Islamist, anti-democratic policies are not what the people want. They want real democracy.

I'd like to share! After spending a few hours speaking with my father last night, I'd like to set a little light. He is an Egyptian, and a huge reader. So, when Mubarak was over thrown, it was mostly due to the fact that he was preparing his son to take over the presidency. At the time, the country was functioning and people at least had some bare needs(gas, food, etc.). People in Egypt started the revolution in jan of 2011 because they had, had it with the same president for 35 years. The revolution was the product of the youth in Egypt and ended up being hijacked by the Muslim brotherhood(whose leaders had been imprisoned during former president Sadats time). They came in with their religious agenda, and used their money to elect Morsi. Now people wait in line at the gas stations for 4-5 hrs, they can't find food, all the while the Brotherhood enforces religious sanctions. Egyptians want to become westernized and enjoy life without religious barriers.

I'm still not understanding this. So they overthrew the previous government and elected the new guy, and it turns out he's a prick so they are wanted to throw him out. Is this more or less correct. Someone help me out please. There was an ELI5 thread about this but I can't find it.

Mubarak was overthrown, and Morsi was elected. Morsi moved to neuter the courts, make a new constitution giving him broad powers, and filled the government with his cronies while doing little to nothing for the people of Egypt.

Since the Egyptians have some experience with this whole demonstrating thing, they went through and did it again, and the military provided an ultimatum to Morsi that he ignored, so they're helping out - which I think they also did the first time with Mubarak.

Their willingness to go to the streets to get things done is admirable, but it doesn't help them an iota if they don't have any good ideas to actually implement. Protesting is only as good as the ideas you're protesting in favor of. You can't simply protest purely out of anger and a desire to throw out the powers that be, you've got to have some idea about what you want to have in its place.

That is more or less correct, yes. Previous government were corrupt assholes, they got thrown out. New guy came in with promises of hope and change and upholding the constitution (boy doesn't THAT sound familiar), then over the past year has systematically dismantled the constitution to favor his party (the Muslim Brotherhood) and his party alone, and squashing any dissenting voice against him (the 'John Stewart of Egypt' guy being bullied to shut up). He may've been voted in democratically, but then he USED that democratic power to pervert the government to fit his own needs. That's not democracy, and 80 million people 16-ish million plus the military wised up to that fact.

Wonder how long it'll take for the rest of us to wise up...

EDIT: 80 million's the total population of Egypt. The amount protesting is supposedly 20% of that, or 16 million...that's still a LOT of people.

You do realize a lot of militaries (in at least the more progressive states like Turkey used to be) swear their oaths to uphold the constitution of the state, and NOT the government currently in power, right? In a lot of cases it's the last safeguard a population has against a corrupt politic. You realize the military got involved with the LAST Egyptian revolution, right? And y'know what? That actually turned out great, until the guy they put in power took off his sheep wool to reveal he's a wolf. There's no reason to believe the military in this case won't protect the system until it can get fixed again, just like they did last time (unless I'm horribly remembering things wrong).

Most of us are too busy working 60+ hours a week to afford basic necessities like health insurance to find the time to protest things we disagree with. It's actually the perfect plan. Keep day laborers underpaid and overworked and they'll never have time to bitch about it.

He only got elected because there were so many secular, reformer candidates that they splintered the vote too much. He got about 25% of the votes in the first election. If there had been only one or two of those candidates against him, Morsi wouldn't have even made it to the run-off election.

Question for Egyptians: it seems like your country, compared to others in the region, has a much lower threshold for tolerating Islamist nonsense.

IF the Islamists and Brotherhood try to start a civil war, I'm assuming the military will put them down, but would the majority of the people side with the apparently secular military, or with the Islamists?

Your country--from a Westerner's point of view--seems like one of the rare ones who wouldn't be unwilling to stomp on the throat of the religious nuts.

Compared to who? Libya actively drove out Islamist militants and elected secularists whereas Egypt elected in an Islamist. Also one of the biggest parties to emerge in Egypt was a Salafist party so there's no way I'd say Egypt has a low threshold compared to its neighbours. Tunisia, Morocco, Libya to name a few are "less Islamist" than Egypt is.

Let me break it down in extreme simplistic terms for the simpletons inhabiting this thread:

If you elect a leader who promised he absolutely will not, say, kill a kitten on live tv with a hammer, and in this bizzaro situation for the simpletons, he was elected on that very promise...if he proceeds to slaughter 4 kittens, 2 puppies and a hamster on live tv with a sledgehammer, no, it is absolutely not democratic to say "oh well the people voted for him too bad."

No, the people didn't elect him, they elected what he stood for, and he is turning his backs on what he supposedly stood for. That isn't democracy.

Jesus fucking Christ, why must someone always make this same inane fucking post? X is happening and CNN is only showing Y! We fucking get it, CNN isn't a very good news source. Stop beating the goddamn horse and post something worthwhile instead.

Yeah it shouldn't be at the top of the page but it is a constant frustration that the entire news media of the U.S. is absolute dogshit and the only way to fix it is to keep complaining about it to everyone until they all finally turn the tv's off.

egyptians have a flair for theatrics, not just in protests. this is why they are more fun to watch i guess. its always unfolds like a movie. whereas other protests in other parts of the world seem kinda boring, narrative wise.

The Muslim Brotherhood is actually one of the least Islamic movements currently taking place in the Middle East. Since they are inherently a political party, they have pushed away some of the more traditionalist members of Islam such as the Salafists.

Depends what you mean by "less religion". Islam has always been a very important factor in Egyptian politics and political society. Perhaps not as much as in other countries, but over the last few decades Egyptian politics has underwent significant Islamization.

So you elected a partisan despot after a partisan revolt and you're acting surprised?

I'm not surprised, but I've a pretty good knowledge of history. You know who got fucking lucky? America. George Washington could have been the meanest prick on the Earth but instead took office for two years and left (and let's be honest he wasn't even a great president, he was a military leader)

Revolution is a constant process. You don't "luck" into a democracy, Democracy needs a lot of work (listen up America too) You can't just go with the first guy who wants power but you need to find leaders who can lead and not just support their partisan interests.

Hopefully Egypt will find a better leader, and a better leader, but remember Egypt, this is a normal part of building a true democratic nation and while it must suck, please don't give up.

They want the country stable and the economy strong. Their military is much more involved in domestic affairs than ours, and particularly with business. It was to the point that tourism, for example, put a lot of money directly in the pockets of military officials. Side effect: military friendly(ish) to foreigners (with money). It was pretty corrupt but worked out well for visitors.

Turning that country into a place with a reputation for riots and religious intolerance hits them on a personal level you won't see in other countries in that region. Add in the new guy trying to replace their leadership and take power for himself and they were probably just itching to replace him. At this point they probably want anyone who will leave them alone and stop pissing off the people long enough for tourism to pick back up.

Key event in next 24 hours could be how Egyptian army handle Morsi supporters on streets. If some authority figure does not defuse that or trigger a confrontation it could escalate. Looking at those huge crowds though like vast majority want Brotherhood out by any means. That region has unpredictable chain of outcomes.

Well Morsi is overthrown and the Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi made a statement. The central elements of the plan are to temporarily suspend Egypt’s Constitution; to appoint the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court to manage the affairs of the state until a new president is elected; form of a technocratic government; to establish a committee of experts to amend the Constitution; and to hold parliamentary elections soon. Heba Morayef, the Human Rights Watch Egypt director, translated sections of the speech on Twitter as it was read out.

Chief justice : Interim president

Should note that Al-jazeera was showing live scenes of thousands pro Morsi supporters taking an oath in mass to defend the constitution, president etc with their lives.

El-Baradei spoke

Youth leader talking now in T-shirt. Many high ranking military guys seated around him.

Al Nur - Ultra conservative major Islamic party leader also gave speech on stage.

The generals have power, of course, but the military is very tied to the people in Egypt. If the people disagree with and stand up against a military action, I don't think we'll see the type of massive violence we see in Syria, for example. Mubarak was a military man, that didn't save him when the masses decided enough was enough.

Ive said this before but it seems like they are more concerned with having to fight the people. Seems like they are more worried about a civil war then anything. In order to avoid civil war the problem of the people must be removed.

EDIT: I do agree however the Military is doing this for there own agenda, but it does seem to be more practical then tyrannical. The Egyptian people seem pretty well adapted to calling bullshit however. Seeing as the military is actively trying to avoid any sort of war I feel like its less corruptible as they will bend towards public opinion.

Doubt it, military only rules in the interim then steps down once elections are held. See: Mubarak overthrow, SCAF rule, and power handover to Morsi. The Egyptian military is comprised of mostly young people and they sympathize with the people.

Update: Military isn't even ruling in the interim. They've handed interim leadership to Adli Mansour, the chief justice of Egypt's Constitutional Court and an excellent choice. I am very, very pleased by this.

Technically it's a coup any time a military removes their country's government by force. Whether or not the coup turns into a dictatorship is a whole other thing... there are many examples of coups going either way.

Personally my money is on the military setting up elections & stepping aside once they're complete. Egypt is too developed & educated to allow a military dictatorship, especially after all of these protests that have brought down two successive governments.

I think they will do a military dictatorship because they already gave a chance for free elections and democracy, but it failed horribly because politicians are assholes. There is no way in hell they are going to allow democracy again because there have been wide economic and political impacts of the instability in Egypt over the last year. Instability is not something that the military can allow to keep allowing. Also what is not to say that the MB will be re-elected once the coup is done if democracy is allowed again? The rural portions of Egypt are pretty religious and pro-MB so will probably vote a proxy MB party again.

I'm so friggin proud of that Army for taking a stance in support of the people so they can reduce bloodshed. Who makes a battle plan that involves securing the population, freezing the unpopular constitution, and setting up new elections? Fucking Egyptians, that's who.

EDIT: Statement is over. The jist of it was that the Egyptian military was moving to support the people, as they believed they were called upon by them. It seems from the statement that they do not intend to seize power. People are going crazy in the streets now.

The problem is that Morsi was condemned from both sides - liberal factions didn't like his authoritarian/repressive policies and conservative factions (who were largely responsible for bringing Morsi to power) didn't think he went far enough in integrating Islamic law. This fundamentally is going to come down to these two groups. It looks like the military is backing the liberal factions, for now. There are a lot of people in rural areas who are not being represented here. Whatever happens today, I have a sick feeling worse is coming.

Egypt is also a bit of a bellwether for the rest of the region. If they can't throw the shackles of Islam out of their government, I don't see how any country over there could.

listening to hissam kisam on aljazeera and he's saying that this is not a coup -- a coup is something done at dawn in secret, not something that has 50 million people protesting it and signatures on a petition asking for the president to step down. he is an ex-morsi supporter.

Question: How is an elected President who only took office a year ago being forced out so quickly, and in such a dramatic matter? I know he's been a failure so far, but a coup seems like an overreaction.

I have no love for the Muslim Brotherhood, but I have to wonder if outside forces aren't helping the Egyptian military with this coup.

The military told Morsi that if he laid out a roadmap to political resolution between the opposing groups, he could stay.

Since taking office, Morsi took actions to significantly weaken the courts and give himself broad powers under a new constitution. The Egyptian population doesn't have any faith in the legitimacy of the system, so they're willing to start from scratch again.

Well the issue is their economy has put lots of people in a desperate state. Not to mention that President Morsy put in place lots of constitutional amendments that were giving him too much power. It just went too far for (most) peoples taking